


A Daze of Manic Blue

by aprilbird



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Summer Camp, Archery, Background Relationships, Chaos, Emotional Healing, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/F, Fluff and Crack, If you want the quintessential Lesbian Yearning experience you've come to the right place, Lots of marshmallows were harmed in the making of this fic, Misunderstandings, Pining, Sharing Clothes, The campfire is a metaphor, There's so much gay shit, kind of, oblivious lesbians
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-13
Updated: 2019-09-14
Packaged: 2020-10-17 22:46:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 15,880
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20628782
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aprilbird/pseuds/aprilbird
Summary: Lena Luthor takes a job at a summer camp to help transfer college credits, and over the course of one magical summer filled with campfires, yearning, and minor heatstroke, learns that the real emotional healing is in the friends we make along the way. Also, Kara sets things on fire, Brainy is confused, Winn digs a hole, Nia makes paper fans, Mike gets shot with a water pistol, Lena gets her hair braided, and Alex metaphorically eats popcorn in the background.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I've never actually been to this kind of summer camp, but my friends have & I've seen a lot of movies ok. 
> 
> Title from Superlove by Whethan and Oh Wonder
> 
> This one is also kind of a clusterfuck. Enjoy
> 
> (TW for references/flashbacks to abusive & controlling familial relationships.)

Lena was beginning to have second thoughts. 

The July sun blinded her as she pulled into the dusty circle of gravel that passed for a driveway, reflecting off of some body of water hidden in the trees at the precise angle to glare into her eyes. God, these trees. The damn things had concealed the sign marking the tiny dirt turnoff from the main road, and she had only happened upon it by attempting to use it to turn around. They couldn’t even block the sun correctly, as was obvious from the incessant twinkling from that goddamn lake. So, one minute in, she already hated the trees and was- she glanced at her watch as she put the car in park- twenty minutes late. This summer job was off to a great start.

Lena sighed, stepping out of the car. She reminded herself that she had to look on the bright side, even if the heel of her shoe sank into damp gravel as she closed the door. Even if her sleek Tesla stood out like a sore thumb amongst the dingy, mud-splattered collection of SUVs and Jeeps. Even if it was a _ lot _ hotter out here in the humid air than in had been in the crisp, cold AC of the car. And Jesus, it was hot. She pushed her sunglasses up in an effort to keep her hair from sticking to her forehead, squinting at the heightened brightness as she unbuttoned her shirt cuffs to roll her sleeves. Slacks and a button-up had seemed like a good idea at the time, but now she worried she’d collapse of heatstroke under the weight of the duffle bag slung over her shoulder before she found anyone.

She headed down the little path near the entrance of the parking lot, glad for even the patchy shade of the forest. Maybe she had judged the trees too harshly. Just as she was beginning to wonder if this was a real path at all, or just some trampled underbrush, she saw the outlines of buildings. Quickening her pace, Lena hoisted the bag higher on her shoulder and turned the last bend to see a huge wooden cabin, with a faded sign declaring “SUPERCAMP” in peeling red and blue letters. Well, at least she was in the right place.

The camp seemed empty, as she walked through the muggy air past more cabin-like buildings, but the parking lot had been nearly full, and she heard the distant echo of kids yelling in a gleeful cacophony from somewhere up ahead. As she debated whether to stumble blindly around in search of the voices or sit and wait, a door creaked on her left. She yelped at the same time as the stranger exiting the building, both of them freezing at the sight of the other.

“Sorry about that,” Lena said, laughing a little and offering her hand. “Something about this place sets my nerves on edge, I don’t know what it is. Kind of creepy, though, right?” She gestured toward the old buildings around them with a smile. A good way to establish connections with others was to find something in common to laugh at, and these dilapidated cabins were as good a victim as any. 

The woman didn’t smile back. She had pointed features and a severe wave of short hair swept up to reveal shaved sides, and her arms were firmly crossed over her black polo, emblazoned with the stylized “S” of the camp’s logo. Lena felt her smile begin to drop.

The woman took her hand in a crushing grip, squinting coldly. “I wouldn’t consider it creepy. I consider this place a second home. I’m Director Danvers, and I run a tight ship, so I assume you must be Lena, our _ punctual _ new counselor, who likes to breeze in late and insult her new workplaces, is that right?”

Lena felt her hand go limp, but the Director- oh, shit, her _ boss _\- kept her in an iron grip. “The trees blocked the, sign, I couldn’t- I didn’t know you were-”

Danvers burst into laughter, tossing her head back, the vice of her handshake turning into a reassuring squeeze. Her laugh was surprisingly warm, and she patted Lena’s shoulder while finding her breath. 

“You should have seen your face, holy,” she stopped to wheeze again, nearly doubling over. “I was just kidding! Just some light hazing, I promise I’m not actually that much of a hardass.”

Lena swallowed, finding her voice, pushing down the instinct to snap back. “I’m sorry I called the camp creepy. And that I was late, I just-”

“Don’t worry about it, really! I’ve been meaning to trim the trees around the sign forever, you wouldn’t believe how many people miss that turnoff. You’re not even that late- everyone is over at the pavilion for our welcome meeting. I’ll walk you over there!”

“I don’t want to be any trouble-“

“I’m heading there anyways; I just had to run some paperwork to the Outhouse.” At Lena’s questioning glance, she clarified, “The main building/office/infirmary. It’s the oldest cabin on the grounds, so we’ve taken to calling it the Directors’ Epic Outhouse, or DEO. Or just the Outhouse. You weren’t wrong- this place is old enough to be creepy.”

“Maybe so, but it has a certain charm,” Lena said. 

“I like you already, new girl.”

As they started walking, Lena pushed away the surge of irrational pride at the compliment- she had barely known this woman for five minutes, she didn’t need her approval. She shifted the strap of her duffel to the opposite shoulder, inquiring, “Aren’t you a little young to be the director of a place like this?”

“Yes, yes I am,” Danvers replied, smiling at some private joke. “But until this summer I was just another counselor- the old director, J'onn, is stepping down, so this year I’m in charge and he’s my assistant director.”

“Jean? Is that french?”

“It’s J’onn, J’onn J’onzz, but he doesn’t mind if people say John or Jean. And to be honest, I have no idea where it’s from. Hippie parents, maybe?” Danvers shrugged. “Look, you can see the pavilion from here!” 

Lena looked where she was pointing, peering past trees, towards the source of the voices she had heard earlier. They had walked a ways to the left of the buildings, along the lake, and in the dimming light- when had the sun started setting?- she could see a dim glow further down the lakeshore, blocked by silhouettes. “That looks like a lot of people,” she said, pushing her heavy hair off of her neck and to the side. “Are you sure we’re not late?” 

“Nah, they’re still getting food. Each year, as soon as the kids show up, they have dinner at the pavilion, then we do our welcome meeting where J’onn- well, this year, where _ I _introduce everybody and explain what Supercamp is all about! Then everybody roasts marshmallows and we make s’mores before dividing into our cabin groups for the summer.”

“That sounds… amazing,” Lena said. “I never went to anything like this as a child.”

“Well, you get to experience it now,” Danvers said reassuringly. “Is that why you took the job, if you don’t mind my asking?”

“Not really. I’m transferring to NCU this fall, from Metropolis U, and I had to do a work-study for some of my credits to transfer. I’m an engineering major, that’s why I’m leading the Discovering Science classes here.” The words were well-rehearsed in their simplicity and lack of emotion or detail.

“My little sister goes to National City! She’s working here as a counselor too, as one of the sports instructors. I’m sure you two will get along- she’s a marketing major, so you probably won’t have too many classes together, but it might be nice to know someone there. Not that you don’t already know people there, I’m not trying to insinuate that you have no friends-”

“It’s fine,” Lena smiled tightly. “I don’t actually know anyone at the university, or in National City at all for that matter. I’m transferring for… familial reasons.” Even that small admission felt like too much, but there was something about this woman that made her easy to admit things to.

“Hey, I get it. Family can be tough,” Danvers said, matching her serious tone. “The sister I was talking about? She’s adopted. Her parents died in an accident when she was a kid, and mine raised her as one of our own. We didn’t always get along growing up, but now she’s my best friend. A few years ago, her cousin found us- apparently he’d been looking for her for years. He and J’onn founded this place, actually- that’s how Kara and I started working here as counselors in the summers, and, to be honest, that’s what brought us closer together.”

And Lena had been worried about oversharing. “...That’s...”

“I didn’t mean to burden you with my life story there, I just wanted to let you know- this place, creepy as it may be, has a strange way of connecting people. You can find a family here, if you’re open to it.”

Lena blinked rapidly- there must have been some pollen in the air, or something. “Thanks, Director.”

Danvers smiled. “Call me Alex. Now come on, we’re actually going to be late soon.” The path that they had been following, if it could even be called a path, had narrowed into what looked like a dead end, but Alex strode forward confidently. She pushed a leafy branch to the side, revealing worn wooden boards set into the earth to form makeshift stairs heading down. 

As she followed, Lena wished yet again that she had worn more sensible shoes. Caught up in everything, she had formed a mental image of her science-credit summer job as some kind of sleek, college-for-kids style professional environment, not a scene straight out of Wet Hot American Summer, but it was fine. So what if the muggy air made her silk button-down suffocating- she had brought plenty of linen ones. She could ask around for an iron to fix the precise creases in her trousers. She would get the mud out of her black leather Dolce & Gabbana heels eventually- it could have been worse, she had almost worn the damn Louboutins. 

None of it mattered. Alex seemed genuinely nice, and Lena couldn’t help but remember what she had said- that this place had a way of connecting people. _ Sentimental drivel, _sneered a voice in the back of her head, but she pushed it away. She was done listening to that voice- as a matter of fact, she was going to do the exact opposite of whatever it said. She would connect to others in this muddy swamp, out of pure spite if she had to. 

“Here we are!” Alex declared, gesturing expansively before the two of them. “The pavilion.”

The hill they had been making their way down broadened out into a small valley, covered in a wooden platform lined with long tables. A gabled roof arched overhead, its inner beams wrapped in fairy lights that illuminated the fading red, blue, and gold paint on the tables and benches. The tables were arranged in the same geometric shape as the camp’s logo, with the “S” painted on the floorboards in the center. The long table that made up the top of the logo was covered in the remains of a buffet, and the other tables were full of kids, laughing and talking as they ate. Lena knew she was staring, but she couldn’t help it. She genuinely hadn’t thought scenes like this existed outside of cheesy teen movies. (Not that she watched cheesy teen movies. Well, sometimes they played at the gym, but what was she supposed to do, switch treadmills and lose the recording of her progress?)

“Alright, I need to get up there and start the welcome ceremony,” Alex said as they approached the pavilion, patting Lena on the arm. “I’ll leave you in capable hands, don’t worry.”

Lena bit back a protest. She was a grown woman who could handle herself, she didn’t need to follow the only person she knew here around the whole evening like a puppy. 

Alex led her to the table that formed the bottom of the logo, parallel to the buffet. This table was full of young adults, laughing and pushing each other just as much as the kids around them. She pulled out an empty chair, and Lena dropped into it, glad to be off of her feet. She looked up to thank her, but Alex was gone, and she was surrounded by strangers talking amongst each other. For a moment, she felt overwhelmingly out of place, but her thoughts were cut off by a screech of microphone feedback. 

“Haha, sorry about that, everyone! Hi! How are we doing?” Alex asked as she strode around the open space inside the tables, having somehow acquired a microphone bedazzled with red and blue plastic rhinestones. Her question was answered with a chorus of cheers. “I can’t really hear you guys, I said how are we doing?” Louder cheers erupted.

Lena smiled to herself- she had never been overly fond of little kids, but it was clear that Alex loved them.

“My name is Director Danvers, and I’m in charge of Supercamp this year! I want to take a moment to welcome you all- this summer's gonna be so much fun, and I hope you’re all as excited as I am! I’m also the medic here, so if anyone needs help with meds or has any health questions, you can come talk to me. I’ve got a really great team this year, and they’re excited to meet you guys too!”

Lena’s table-mates cheered loudly, raising their glasses of punch and whooping. Alex was rattling off explanations and questions, and loud cheers followed all of it. Lena tried to pay attention, but it was more than a little overwhelming. 

“Are you alright?” asked a quiet voice. She blinked, focusing on the concerned face of the young man to her right. He had long dark hair and wore a maroon T-shirt declaring ‘_ I make science puns, but only periodically _’ in gold block letters. 

“I’m fine, just tired,” she said. “Nice shirt.”

“Why, thank you! It was a gift from my good friend, Nia Nal,” he said, touching the shoulder of the girl to his right to get her attention. “She is the Arts and Crafts counselor here, and my good friend.” 

“You mentioned that,” Lena said with a wry smile.

The girl turned around and smiled at them, pushing her long braid over her shoulder. “Oh, hey! I’m Nia, like Brainy said. I love your shirt!”

“I- thank you, I like yours too.” 

Nia beamed, straightening her floral blouse. “This is Brainy, by the way, since he’s apparently not going to introduce himself.”

“Hm?” The boy in question blinked himself out of his dreamy stare to face Lena. “Oh, yes, I am Brainy, the Cooking counselor here.”

“I’m Lena, I’m going to be the Discovering Science counselor- it’s my first year here.”

“I used to lead those classes, hence the shirt,” Brainy reminisced, “but last year the Cooking counselor, Imra, retired, so I switched. Cooking is my real passion- it’s just applied chemistry with delicious results.”

“Don’t get him started,” Nia said fondly. “We’ll never hear the end of it. I saw Alex lead you in- did she introduce anyone else?”

“Not really,” Lena admitted.

“Well, there’s me and Brainy, obviously, as Arts & Crafts and Cooking. The older guy in a camp polo across from you is J’onn, the old director- this year he’s just gonna be helping out around camp and getting Alex ready to lead this place on her own when he retires. This rascal here,” she bopped the guy sitting next to her on the back of the head, “is Winn, our Tech Ed counselor.”

“Hey, watch the hair,” the guy complained, ruffling his quiff back into shape. “You must be the new Science counselor, right? I should warn you, Tech Ed and Science have a longstanding rivalry, thanks to Brainy here, so don’t think I’m letting that go just because someone else is in charge.”

“Is that so?” Lena inquired, raising an eyebrow. “Why don’t you just pit your campers against his Cooking kids?”

“Are you crazy? You don’t mess with the food, everyone knows that,” he grinned. “It’s good to meet you, but I'm afraid we must be mortal enemies.”

Nia rolled her eyes. “Don’t mind Winn, he’s just like that.”

“Even in the height of our rivalry, you and I remained friends, Winn,” scolded Brainy. “I expect you to extend the same courtesy to Lena.”

“Of course,” Winn said, leaning over to shake Lena’s hand. When Brainy wasn’t looking, he mouthed “_ watch out _” and winked. Despite herself, she laughed. 

Nia sighed. “Continuing with the introductions, the guy to Winn’s right-”

“The _ handsome _ bastard to my right is Mike, our Watersports counselor-”

“God, would you stop telling people that,” the young man said, turning around exasperatedly. “I’m in charge of _ Lake _ Sports, as in canoeing and swimming and stuff.”

“Sure, Mike,” Winn nodded in faux sympathy. “Whatever you say, dude.”

“Winn and Mike are the counselors for Cabin Four, the older boys,” Nia explained over the bickering that broke out on the right side of the bench. “Brainy and Clark are in charge of the younger boys in Cabin Two- that’s Clark over there, with the glasses.” She gestured toward a dark-haired man talking earnestly with J’onn. “He leads the Horseback Riding classes. His girlfriend- Lois, the Music counselor- and I are in charge of the younger girls in Cabin One.”

“Wait,” Lena said, wishing she could take notes. “Then what about, what would it be, Cabin Three? Who’s in charge of the older girls?”

“Well, you are, of course,” Brainy said. “You and Kara.”

“Which one was Kara, again?”

“She is not here right now, I believe she is getting the cabins ready. She’s the Sports counselor, and Clark’s cousin, as well as Alex’s sister.”

“Right, I remember, Alex mentioned her to me,” Lena said, nodding. So, the mysterious sister who was supposed to be her college buddy was also her co-counselor and cabin mate. Great, no pressure to get along at all.

“Hey, look, the announcements are done- it’s marshmallow time!” Winn exclaimed.

Sure enough, Alex had wrapped up her speech and was gesturing towards a giant fire pit built into the center of the pavilion. J’onn stepped forward to assist her, and Clark and Lois got up to pull benches into the open space, surrounding the fire. Everyone got up, and Lena blindly followed Brainy as they helped arrange the benches. She smiled nervously at some of the children and got beaming, gap-toothed grins back. Once the benches were set up, she stood awkwardly for a second before Brainy pulled her down to sit with him and Winn.

There was some kind of call and repeat song that Lois led, and after a few verses Lena had the hang of it and was laughing along with everyone else. Time seemed to stretch into a blur of firelight and music and laughter, and then the fire was built up enough and Alex was holding up giant bags of marshmallows and everyone was cheering. 

Nia offered her a roasting stick, but she shrugged it off, mouthing “_ Not hungry _ ” and shaking her head. Actually, she was starving- she had been so busy getting introduced to everyone that she had never gotten dinner- but despite how comfortable she felt there was no escaping that she had never done anything like this before. She had no idea how to roast a marshmallow, and didn’t want her new fr- acquaintances to lose whatever respect they had for her when she inevitably failed to do it correctly. Instead, she settled in to cheer them on and laugh at Winn and Mike arguing over the best place in the fire to position their sticks, which of course turned into an innuendo-heavy roasting session. Lena smiled to herself- ha, _ roasting _ session.

A sputtering sound caught her attention from across the fire. 

Glancing up, she met a pair of wide, blue eyes, sending a jolt zipping down her spine. The face staring at her belonged to a young woman, blonde hair turned bronze by the firelight. Lena knew she was staring, but couldn’t stop herself; her eyes were dry from the heat, but she couldn’t bring herself to blink for fear of fracturing the moment that hung between them; the waves of heat from the fire were nearly unbearable on her suddenly-oversensitive skin, but still she felt frozen in place, unable to break that gaze, look away from that face-

“Look out, fire-” a high-pitched yelp split the silence, snapping Lena back to herself. She blinked, rubbing at her dry eyes, squinting across the fire. The blonde goddess of a few moments ago was now a flustered mess, being shouted at by several people surrounding her as she flattened her hair with one hand, the other brandishing a- was that a torch?

“Your marshmallow!” Mike- the source of the earlier high-pitched yelp- called, and sure enough, at the end of the stick was a burning marshmallow- not simply singed on one end but truly, gloriously, entirely _ on fire _. 

“I- oh, god, I didn’t mean to- I’m sorry-” the woman stammered, holding the unfortunate marshmallow as far away from her as possible.

“Just breathe,” Brainy said, half-standing, holding out a hand. “Don’t flail it, just stay calm, bring it close to your face, and blow it out.”

Taking a deep breath, she followed his instructions, killing the flames to reveal a sad, small, smoldering lump of what looked like charcoal, oozing slightly, utterly burnt. “This one’s no good for s’mores now,” she sighed, shoulders slumping.

Maybe it was the marshmallow fumes. Maybe it was an inability to see this stranger disappointed, some out-of-nowhere impulse to make her smile. Maybe it was that she had just noticed the woman’s arms in her blue muscle tank when she shrugged and now her brain was shorting out.

“I prefer them burnt,” Lena found herself saying, smiling across the fire. “I’ll take that one, if you don’t want it.”

“You will?” The woman beamed, all earlier sadness blasted away by the force of her smile. Lena had thought her brain was shorted out earlier, but that smile was searing itself into her mind and there wasn’t a single thing she could do to stop it even if she had wanted to. Which she didn’t.

“Of course,” she managed.

Still beaming, the woman did something- witchcraft, probably- and suddenly the charred lump on a stick was sandwiched between graham crackers with some chocolate, and she was walking over to Lena, holding it out. Their hands touched as the gooey square was handed over, and Lena felt the spark of their brushing fingers dance up her arm. She held the s’more gingerly, cautiously raising it to her mouth and taking a careful bite out of the corner. The taste of chocolate mixed with charcoal flooded her mouth, sweet but undoubtedly burnt. Not what she had been expecting, but, all things considered, not that bad. She swallowed with some effort and wiped at her lip with the side of a finger, blushing, glancing up through her lashes at the woman, who looked slightly dazed. “It’s, sorry-” she said, swallowing again. She smiled, small but genuine. “It’s delicious.”

“I, uh- I’m glad you, you like it, I’ve gotta g- go, I’ve gotta go, Alex needs me, sorry, I’ll, uh, see you-” the woman managed, half of it said over her shoulder as she stumbled out of the circle of benches, nearly running into a wooden pole.

Lena blinked after her, eyes catching on long legs in compression shorts, on blonde curls dancing over toned shoulders, on- “Brainy?”

The young man in question squinted at her from the place the woman had just vacated. “I’ve been here the entire time,” he said, confused.

“No, right, I just,” she trailed off, looking around, but the blonde woman was gone.

***

Lena woke up disoriented. The sun shone through a window to her right where mismatched paisley curtains had parted, allowing a single beam to settle itself directly over her eyes. She raised a hand to block it, squinting, and stretching, and realizing as she stretched that the fabric against her legs was not the smooth silk of her four-poster bed but some unfamiliar worn cotton blend. 

Blinking groggily, she recalled Alex leading her and a gaggle of preteens to a cabin- presumably Cabin Three, but between the darkness and her exhaustion she hadn’t registered any details of the building- and telling her that her co-counselor would be along soon. She vaguely remembered setting her duffel down on a bunk, and feeling a little useless as the girls chose bunks and changed in the adjacent bathroom without any indication of needing her help. 

As the room brightened further, Lena remembered the pavilion, and the other counselors she had met, and something else, something had happened that she had just been thinking or dreaming about, why couldn’t she remember-

“Morning, sunshine,” said a cheery voice from above. 

Lena didn’t yelp, really, she just startled, wincing as her elbow clipped the wall. As if summoned from her memories, the woman from the night before was smiling above her, climbing down from the upper bunk in grey camo sweatpants and a loose t-shirt with the sleeves ripped off. She was wearing glasses, and her hair was falling out of a messy bun, but it was undoubtedly her- Lena wouldn’t forget those eyes anytime soon. Or those arms.

“What are you,” she cleared her throat. “What are you doing here?”

“I didn’t introduce myself last night? I’m sorry, there was a lot going on, with the, uh, fire, but- I’m Kara! Kara Danvers. Nice to meet you, roomie.” She hopped down the last few ladder rungs and stuck out her hand for Lena to shake.

“I’m- wow, that’s a grip- I’m Lena.”

“I know,” Kara blushed slightly. “Alex told me last night.” At Lena’s questioning look, she hastily added, “Because we’re co-counselors, obviously. It’s up to us to manage these upstarts!” She gestured around them with a nervous laugh.

The little figures on the other bunks were beginning to stir. “They seem fairly… independent,” Lena said.

“Oh, they are. These are the older girls, after all, they’ve all been coming here for years. We keep track of them between dinner and breakfast- after that we just worry about the kids in our classes! For now, though…” she trailed off, rummaging around a shelf to procure a battered watch. “It’s definitely time to get everyone up! It’s the first day of camp, so we all got to sleep in a little.”

Lena sat up and stretched, pushing the floral quilt off of herself, eyes widening as she read the time on Kara’s watch. If this was sleeping in, she shuddered to think of how early they’d be getting up tomorrow. She would get used to it- she usually didn’t sleep much anyways, last night had been the longest she’d slept in, well, years, probably. 

Kara coughed. Her ears were red, and she was intensely scrutinizing the watch in her hand. 

Lena looked down and realized she was wearing a nightgown- so she had changed last night before zonking out, that was good to know. She wasn’t sure why Kara was looking at her like that, though it was certainly a nice nightgown- fluttery white satin, as all her pajamas were. Then again, Kara seemed to have slept in ordinary sports clothes. Maybe she had fallen asleep without changing? But Lena distinctly remembered shorts, last night. So those were pajamas. Normal-person pajamas, not raised-in-a-mansion-silk-sheets-four-poster-bed pajamas. Great. 

“Sorry,” Lena said. “I, uh, don’t really have any… normal pajamas. Or normal clothes. I didn’t really know that this was a _ camp _-camp, to be honest.”

“It’s fine!” Kara exclaimed, adjusting her glasses. “I’m sure whatever you have will be fine. You, uh, you make it work.” With that, she excused herself to the bathroom with a bundle of clothes, still blushing. 

Lena slumped back, her exhale punched out of her lungs as she tilted her head against the bedpost. Even her pajamas were wrong. This was going to be a long summer.

***

Hours later, Kara was still on her mind. She had picked the most casual clothes she had out of her bag: a sleeveless blouse with linen trousers and low-heeled Oxfords. She had decided, upon inspection, that she didn’t quite trust the cobwebbed, yellowing outlets in the cabin bathroom with her hair tools, and had left it hanging down her back unstyled- practically summing it. At breakfast, however, she had realized that, next to Kara’s khaki shorts and scrunchied ponytail, she still looked stuffy and starched. No matter- it wasn’t like it was a competition, what did she care? 

Brainy had given her a quick tour of the Lab- an old but well-kept section of the DEO scattered with lab benches, microscopes, and various science paraphernalia. There was even a taped-together binder of Brainy’s old lesson plans, which he had encouraged her to use or disregard as she pleased. She had been nervous about interacting with the kids, but they had all been great so far- the morning was all older Science track kids, and some of the girls in her cabin were also in her classes. She was even starting to remember names- there was Caitlyn, who had crooked bangs and a passion for weather science, Felicity, who had glasses and a talent for circuitry, and Alena, who clung to Felicity like a shadow. A few others had made an impression, too- some of the boys, Barry and Ray and Cisco and Curtis, definitely showed promise. 

It was fun, a lot more fun than she had expected, but her thoughts kept returning to blue eyes and a beaming smile. Finally, the little green clock on the wall struck noon. Her heart raced as she led the kids to the pavilion for lunch, eyes darting without her permission along the counselors’ table in search of blonde curls. The funny sensation in her chest when she saw Kara, laughing with Nia, was, in her scientific opinion, entirely unwarranted given that they hadn’t even known each other for a day. She went through the buffet, shooting an amused smile to a hairnet-clad Brainy as he obligingly gave little Barry an extra scoop of pasta. The kid’s puppy eyes were a force to be reckoned with, for sure.

“Hello,” she said nervously, approaching the table, clutching her tray like she was back in the boarding school cafeteria. She hadn’t really had friends, then- or ever, really- and she was determined not to let her knotted stomach or shaking hands ruin her chances this time. Those were normal reactions to really, really wanting to be friends with someone, right?

“Lena, hi!” Kara exclaimed, scooting over on the bench. “Thank goodness, another voice of reason to counter these two knuckleheads.” She rolled her eyes at Winn and Mike. The former had his head buried in his arms, and the latter was poking him repeatedly with a metal straw. “Please, let’s change the topic- I don’t want to hear about my cousin like that ever again.”

The force of her smile hit Lena like a phaser set to stun, and she struggled to catch her breath. 

“Sit with me at the campfire tonight?” Kara whispered to her.

Voiceless, Lena nodded.

“It’s not my fault that Winn is obsessed with Clark,” Mike said, continuing the poking.

“I am not _ obsessed _,” Winn protested, raising a red face to glare. “...anymore.” he added at Mike’s raised eyebrow. 

Lena covered her laugh with her hand, and saw Kara mirroring the motion. Their eyes met, and the shared moment of look-at-these-wonderful-idiots flooded her chest with warmth. 

“Dude, he told you he was proud of you a few years ago and you said you loved him and nearly passed out,” Mike was saying.

“Out of… professional admiration, that’s all, I’m a people-pleaser by nature-”

“Just admit you’re a bottom and go,” Mike laughed, causing Nia to shoot punch out of her nose.

Brainy patted her back as he joined them, removing his hair net delicately with the other hand. “I admit, I do not understand all the fuss about ‘top’ and ‘bottom’,” he mused.

They all stared at him. Punch dripped down Nia’s chin.

“Really,” he said earnestly, offering her some crumpled napkins, “I am just happy to have a bunk bed.”

***

At the fire that night Lena hesitated for only a second before heading straight for the counselors’ bench. They made room for her automatically, Mike scooting to give her a place at Kara’s side, Brainy pulling her into the conversation like she’d been there all along. They were roasting marshmallows, but again Lena declined a stick, content to sit and talk. Her afternoon had been filled with little kids conducting simple experiments with the gravity of seasoned nuclear physicists, and everyone cracked up as she shared the tale of one particular seven-year-old who had eaten most of the play dough they were using to make model molecules. Having people laugh as she told a story, having them ask follow-up questions and relate it to their own stories- it was foreign to her, but she loved it, and felt a soft glow of affection for all of them.

As Brainy regaled them with the story of how the camp kitchen came to have that one unfortunately-shaped stain on the wall, the fire snapped and sparked, the flicker of the flames washing everyone in shades of ruby and gold. Kara’s legs, stretched out in front of her, shone in the soft light. Lena forced her gaze away, tipping her head back to look at the stars, visible through the hole in the pavilion roof where the smoke escaped. The smoke blocked most of them from view, but a couple twinkled in the periphery.

“Beautiful,” Kara said, following her gaze.

“Yeah,” Lena said, no longer looking at the stars.

Kara met her eyes. “I know we’ve only known each other for a day,” she said softly, “but I feel like it’s been longer, is that weird? Maybe we were destined to be friends.”

_ Friendsfriendsfriendsfriendsfriends _. In all her years of distant classmates at ivy-covered boarding schools, fond but frazzled teachers, polite but busy coworkers, lab partners and dorm mates and associates- no one had ever called Lena their friend before. No one had made her feel like this, like their presence was a crackling fire and their absence was the icy night air when she turned her face from the flames.

She felt herself smiling wider than she ever had before, beaming back at Kara. “Maybe,” she grinned.

Kara looked like the breath had been knocked out of her. A look of brief determination crossed her face, but it was gone a moment later, and she smiled back and shifted-

Which dropped the end of the roasting stick she held into the center of the fire, the marshmallow at the end bursting into flames. She yelped and pulled it away, nearly hitting Winn in the face. He shrieked and covered his hair, and Nia ducked as Kara swung it the other way, and Brainy was saying something about how swinging it around like that wouldn’t help, and Mike was saying _ that’s what she said _, and Lena was reaching out and wrapping her hands over Kara’s, pulling the stick between them. 

“Relax, we’ve got this, you just need to blow it out,” she said, squeezing Kara’s hand. “I’ll help you, okay? On three. One, two-” 

The flames sputtered out, leaving a scorched lump burnt to the prongs. They were still holding it between them, fingers overlapping.

“Is, uh, is the marshmallow okay?” Winn asked, breaking the silence.

The marshmallow was completely, utterly immolated. It was charred beyond recognition, blackened and melted and oozing, a wisp of smoke still curling from the sizzling, carbonized remains. It was no longer, in the strictest sense, a marshmallow at all.

Lena remembered Kara’s dejected face from the night before. “It’s perfect.”

The warmth from Kara’s smile rivaled the campfire.

***

It had kind of become a thing.

“I just don’t understand how you can _ eat _ them,” Winn was saying a week or so later, waving a long-stemmed wildflower over his head as he lay in the grass.

He, Brainy, and Lena had a shared afternoon break hour, which, when they weren’t preparing things for their respective classes, was often spent lounging on the rocks by the lake or in this meadow in the woods, bouncing scientific arguments off of each other or talking about eighties movies. Lena had never _ lounged _ before in her life, but found it surprisingly easy in their comfortable company. True, she didn’t climb up into the trees or perch on the tallest rocks like Brainy, or drape herself across any available horizontal surface like Winn, but she could sit cross-legged in the grass and absent-mindedly lean back on her hands without worrying about grass stains.

They were an unlikely trio, but despite Winn’s initial attempts at rivalry the three of them had a shared love of science and a propensity for what Nia called “unintentional smartassery”, and had become fast friends. _ Friends _ . Every time, it got easier to accept the word. A few days ago, Nia had declared that all of them would exchange bracelets- _ friendship _ bracelets- at the end of the summer, so they had better start planning now. Mike had immediately complained that they weren’t all Arts and Crafts counselors, but while Nia retorted back all Lena could think about was the easy way she had been included in the announcement. After that, it got a little easier to think of them as her friends, as if before she had still unconsciously been afraid they would reject her if she said or did the wrong thing.

She still hadn’t attempted to roast a marshmallow in front of them, but at this point that was less about a fear of mockery and more about, well-

“Kara,” Brainy said, laying above them on a sturdy oak branch, “could surely find someone else to eat them, or could easily dispose of them altogether.”

“What? No- I really do prefer burnt marshmallows,” Lena protested. It wasn’t entirely true. Despite her closeness with the other counselors, Kara still captivated her the most. She felt bad for picking favorites among friends, but she couldn’t help it- every time Kara laughed at her jokes or waved at her she felt lightheaded, like she could float away on the warmth of her smile. She rationalized it as closeness due to their joint living status; of course she’d be closer to her roommate. A part of her, though, couldn’t help but wonder if maybe the bond she and Kara had went beyond simple friendship- maybe they were on their way to being, or, hell, maybe they already were- _ best _ friends.

Regardless, Kara was _ abysmal _at roasting marshmallows. It seemed to be her one weakness- Lena was pretty sure she was perfect in literally every other way. In anyone else, that combination of intelligence and humor and athleticism and attractiveness would make her, not jealous, exactly, but certainly competitive. For Kara, she felt only admiration. Still, it was comforting to know that there was one thing she wasn’t perfect at. After the first few times, Kara no longer flailed about when the marshmallow inevitably combusted, but every night Lena would still cover her hands with her own and help her blow it out, would still insist on eating the blackened remnants, would declare it delicious to see Kara’s smile. 

“Look, ‘burnt marshmallows’ are seared on one side, maybe a little dark brown instead of golden,” Winn said. She could hear the air quotes. “Those goopy puddles of tar are pure ash. Sugar, caramelized into a viscous version of a charcoal briquette.”

“They’re not that bad,” she protested, raising an eyebrow at him.

“You’re right, they’re worse. Last night, Kara used a _ butter knife _ to get it off the stick and _ spread _ it on the graham cracker like _ jam _,” he enunciated, punctuating his sentences with pointed flourishes of the flower. “Like charred, crispy marshmallow fluff. Like sticky, sooty, half-melted glue, mixed with a homemade coffee-charcoal face scrub. Like if you shot a Peep with a phaser set to kill. Like-”

“You’re exaggerating,” Lena declared, leaning forward to pluck the flower from his hand. She stood, stretching, and held it up to Brainy, still reclining in his tree. He graciously accepted it and tucked it behind his ear.

“Am not,” Winn said, but there was no heat in it. Deprived of his floral baton, he flung his hand across his eyes, shading them from the dappled sunlight that filtered through the trees.

“To be honest,” Brainy said, “I have seen you eat much worse. I assume you recall my various culinary experimentations of past years?”

“That’s different,” Winn said petulantly, words muffled by the arm over his face.

“Literally just a few hours ago at lunch you drank a mixture of punch, applesauce, and lasagna because Mike dared you to,” Lena remembered.

“That’s even differenter,” he muttered. 

The conversation shifted to other things- Kirk vs Picard, the probability and implications of true artificial intelligence, how goddamn humid it was- but Lena was still considering Winn’s point. The marshmallow remains that Kara inevitably ended up with were undoubtedly unappetizing, but they had grown on her. Besides, she didn’t want to make Kara feel worse about her cooking skills than she already did. The obvious solution was to teach Kara to be better at roasting marshmallows, without her catching on. How hard could it be?

***

She meant to start that night. Really, she did. But after the free hour was over, she had led her youngest campers on a nature walk, and they happened to stumble across Kara demonstrating archery techniques to her Sports track kids. Younger campers didn’t have specific tracks, so Kara had invited Lena’s kids to sit and watch at a safe distance to see if maybe they would want to choose the Sports track in future years- archery was, of course, only offered to older kids. 

All thoughts and plans dripped out of Lena’s brain as a single drop of sweat dripped down Kara’s back, muscles tensing in her racerback tank as she drew the bow. Mouth dry, she shot a supportive thumbs-up from her perch on a fallen tree at the edge of the clearing. The arrow flew, soaring across the clearing and burying itself in a target with a satisfying _ thunk _. Kara lowered the bow, letting out a breathy laugh. The arrow suck out of the wooden target about five inches from the center. “Sorry guys,” she said. “I must have gotten distracted on that one.” She rolled her shoulders, and Lena forced her gaze away.

“Better luck next time,” she quipped to cover her lapse in attention, tucking her hair behind her ear.

“Like you could do better,” scoffed a kid in a green hoodie.

“Oliver! That wasn’t very nice,” Kara scolded.

The kid folded his arms and stuck out his chin. “I’m just saying, she shouldn’t make fun of you. You’re the best, and I bet she’s never even held a bow before,” he said staunchly.

Kara sputtered, clearly touched by his loyalty but also indignant on Lena’s behalf. 

Deciding to spare her the dilemma, Lena turned to Oliver, holding her hands out in surrender. “It’s true,” she said. “Kara is the best. I didn’t mean to make fun of her- she knows way more about sports than I do, I’m just a scientist.”

“Well,” Kara said, planting her hands on her hips, “Sports and science have plenty of intersection, especially in archery.” She spoke mostly to the assembled group of sports and science kids, but Lena caught her glance and knew this was for her too. “What do you say, kiddos? Should we teach Lena to shoot?”

The kids were overwhelmingly in favor, whether out of support- her kids- or the prospect of a spectacle- Kara’s kids- and so Kara was grabbing another arrow even as Lena struggled to backtrack, to explain, to mention- it was too late.

“I’ll help you, okay?” Kara said, standing close so her lowered voice could be heard over the squeals and cheers. “It’s not that hard, I promise.”

Lena abandoned her protests. “I trust you,” she said.

“Kara,” Oliver said, “Lena doesn’t have her hair tied back. You said that anyone with hair past their shoulders has to-”

“That’s true, safety is important,” Kara said, looking flustered. To Lena, she muttered, “I don’t suppose you have a hair tie?”

Lena blinked at her. Her hair was down, over one shoulder, curling slightly in the humidity, as it was every day.

“Okay,” Kara said, reaching for her own ponytail. She tugged the blue scrunchie free, sending blonde waves tumbling down around her shoulders. “Here, hold this?”

The bow and arrow were pressed into Lena’s hands, and suddenly Kara’s deft fingers were in her hair, combing and lifting and smoothing and pulling it up into a high ponytail. Lena had never really noted their height difference before, but they were both wearing flat-soled shoes and Kara was clearly a few inches taller. She was standing close enough that Lena could smell the rose scent of her hair, could feel her standing close behind as she ran her fingers through the hair at the back of Lena’s neck, gently pulling it up with a slight scrape of nails. Lena felt chills dance out from that spot, through her scalp and her neck and her spine, and she practically fainted on the spot.

“There,” Kara said, with one final tug to secure the ponytail. “Now you’re safety-compliant.”

Finding her voice, Lena halfheartedly held the bow and arrow back towards her. “Kara, you should know,” she began, but Kara squeezed her arm reassuringly and the rest of the sentence scattered like dry leaves on pavement.

“It’s okay if you’re nervous,” she said. “I’ll help you perfect your stance; it’s all in the stance, you’ll see. So you push the bowstring into the nock like this,” She put her hands over Lena’s, guiding her fingers. “And make sure the single vane- that’s the feather thing- is pointing away from the bow, which it is, okay, now straighten up, and tilt your body so you’re perpendicular to the target- anyone want to tell me what perpendicular means?” The last bit was directed to the kids.

“The opposite of parallel!” Barry chirped. He had come along with the younger kids as a counselor’s assistant, and was taking his duties seriously. “Like, forming a right angle!”

Distantly, Lena registered Oliver rolling his eyes, and Barry sticking out his tongue. 

“That’s right,” Kara said. “So even though her head faces the target,” she rested two fingers under Lena’s jaw and gently turned her head, “her body will face the other way.” She put her hands on Lena’s hips and adjusted her stance. “That way, the line of her shoulders makes a straight line to the target.” Light touches lifted her arms into formation. “Now draw back the bow, and let go of the string when you’ve got the target in your sights!”

She pulled away, and Lena felt cold absence everywhere Kara had been touching her. She shot the arrow.

“Ha,” said Oliver.

“Well,” said Kara.

“Whoops,” said Lena. “I must have dropped my elbow.”

“That’s,” Kara said, examining the arrow now embedded in the tree trunk five feet above the target, “actually exactly what you did, lucky guess. Can anyone explain how that could cause the arrow to go higher?”

Barry’s answer was full of advanced vocabulary, and he shot Oliver a look to let him know it was on purpose. 

“And what can she do better next time?”

Oliver’s answer was equally pretentious. The boys were glaring at each other, but there was a new respect there. 

“Sounds like a plan,” Kara said. “This time, I’ll help her hold the stance as she shoots.” She came up behind Lena again, helped her nock a new arrow, adjusted her head and her hips and her arms, and this time she didn’t let go. 

The arrow zipped to the bullseye. 

The kids cheered. Kara beamed and pulled her into a hug. Lena smiled into her hair and squeezed back. 

The first time she had ever gotten a bullseye, she had been eleven years old, and she had gotten a curt nod and a _ “good” _ from her instructor, and an extra free hour that evening. She had climbed the ranks of the archery class at boarding school, had shot robin hoods and won medals and collected ribbons. She had won her first trophy at age 15, and had carefully wrapped it in sweaters to bring home in her suitcase that summer, had eagerly unwrapped it and reorganized her shelf so it was the focal point of her room when she showed Lex. He had taken one look at it and scoffed, rolled his eyes, told her that _ “if you’re going to shoot anything, shoot guns. Trust you to go and pick up some useless, archaic hobby- you know, this isn’t what I meant when I told you to stop copying everything I do.” _

The warmth of Kara’s hug blasted the memory away like sunlight burning away morning fog.

***

Lena forgot about the scrunchie until that night as she got ready for bed, sitting cross-legged on her bed, finishing her skincare routine in her handheld mirror. She knew the mirror was pretentious, but the kids all crowded the bathroom mirror and it was purely practical, even if it _ was _ inlaid with mother-of-pearl. She reached to push her hair back only to realize it already was, and had been all afternoon. Reluctantly, she pulled the scrunchie free, and knocked on the frame of the bunk above her. “Hey, Kara?”

Kara hung her head over the edge, hair streaming down like a golden waterfall. “What’s up?”

“I- here, this is yours.”

“Oh, you can keep it, I have plenty,” Kara said, adjusting her glasses. “It must get hot having your hair down all the time, especially in this humid weather.”

Lena blinked. She didn’t think Kara had noticed her hair. “It’s not that bad,” she said, but it wasn’t quite true. Her hair was constantly sticking to her neck and forehead, constantly overheating- one of the joys of such dark hair in a hot sunny environment. She hadn’t brought any pins or clips when she left, had assumed she could buy them nearby. In the Lab, she twisted her hair up with a pen, but there was no way she was wearing that as a casual look.

“Seriously, keep it,” Kara said, cheeks turning pink from hanging upside down. “I’d recommend a French braid- it stays better than a ponytail and keeps you cool.”

“I don't know how to do that,” Lena admitted softly.

“Well, I can do it for you! Get up here,” Kara exclaimed, swinging back up to her bunk.

“I- what?”

Lena could hear Kara patting the mattress above her. “I’ll braid your hair for you,” she offered again.

Caitlyn, evidently the last one still up, came in from the bathroom and climbed into bed, hitting the lights on her way. Those girls really were independent.

“I can’t,” Lena whispered, glad of the excuse and yet feeling as though a chance had been lost. “It’s dark now.”

“There’s light up here from the window,” Kara pointed out, matching her whisper. 

Lena took a moment to press the heels of her hands to her eyes and sigh heavily before straightening her hair and her nightgown and pulling herself up the ladder. Peering over the edge of the mattress, she saw that there was indeed a beam of moonlight spilling through the window in the gap above the curtain rod, illuminating Kara sitting on her comforter in her pajamas- her blue tank top was emblazoned with the Captain Marvel logo, matching her gold running shorts. Lena clambered up the rest of the way and sat opposite Kara, tucking her legs beneath her and smoothing the skirt of her nightgown across her thighs.

“Wow,” Kara said, and it was more of a breath than a word.

“What?” she asked, self-conscious.

“It’s just, you look like some kind of princess,” Kara said, ducking her head. 

“I do not,” Lena laughed, giving her knee a playful shove.

“Fine, you look like a medieval noblewoman, then, with the dress and the hair and the,” she gestured at Lena’s face. “Never mind. Got your scrunchie?”

Wordlessly, she offered her wrist, and Kara deftly slid it onto her own and gestured for Lena to turn around. She felt nails on her scalp as Kara combed her hair back from her face, and felt her eyes close of their own accord as she abandoned her worries to the gentle sensation of braiding.

“Could I ask a question,” Kara said, softly, after a minute.

“Of course.” Here, in this moment, in the moonlight with Kara’s hands in her hair for the second time that day, there was nothing Lena would refuse her.

“The princess thing. The mirror, that nightgown-”

“I know, the nightgown is kind of weird,” Lena sighed.

“It’s not weird,” Kara said fiercely. “You look beautiful. I just meant- you don’t have any shorts, or jeans, or t-shirts, or hair ties. You’re always so put together like, well, a princess. And obviously you rock it, and people’s style is up to them, but I just. I figured you were rich, but you never talk about your personal life and sometimes you look so sad and I just wondered if any of it was related and if you needed to talk.”

Lena was speechless. She had thought she’d done a good job of schooling her face, of hiding any and all emotions behind crisply ironed trousers and waves of silky hair. Apparently, though, that camouflage was precisely what Kara had picked up on. It was a peculiar feeling, the sensation of being seen, of being known, and she didn’t know how she felt about it. She glanced over her shoulder. Kara’s hands had stopped braiding but still held her hair carefully in place, gentle so as not to hurt her. The moonlight gleamed along her collarbone, the frame of her glasses, the pale blue of her eyes.

“If you needed to talk,” Kara repeated, “I could listen.”

Lena opened her mouth to say _ I’m fine _, but what came out was, “You’re right.”

Kara didn’t say anything, but she quietly resumed braiding.

“Growing up, I was, well. We were certainly wealthy. My family is… cold, I suppose. I spent my childhood in Irish boarding schools, tried unsuccessfully to impress my older half-brother, was largely ignored by my parents, et cetera. Rich girl sob story.” 

The words came out like she had rehearsed them, though she had never so much as thought through her story in her head. She preferred to shove the details of her childhood, and of her family, deep deep down, in little boxes where they couldn’t hurt her, but here she was.

“Just because you have money doesn’t mean your feelings aren’t valid,” Kara said.

“_ Had _ money. Past tense,” Lena corrected. “And we had a _ lot _ of money. Like, a lot. Hence the princess stuff. Turns out, though, that money was ill-gotten. A few months ago, as I was finishing sophomore year at Metropolis U, a journalist started investigating the company and reached out. I had suspected for a while that things weren’t above-board, so I helped. When I started poking around I found so much- so many evil things over so many years, all of it knowingly covered up. I helped her finish her exposé, then broke all ties. I literally shoved everything in my apartment into garbage bags, shoved the bags in my car, and fled to National City, where we have a penthouse apartment downtown. It’s the only real estate in my name, not my parents’ or my brothers, so I knew I’d be safe.”

“Safe?” Kara asked, saying the word like it hurt her mouth.

“I gave details for that article, details that only I would have known. They know what I did. My credit cards stopped working two hours after I left.”

“Jesus.”

“Thankfully, I threw my jewelry box in one of the bags as I packed. I’ve been selling the pieces, and I’ve got enough to live on for a while. I dropped out of college- I was only at Metropolis because it was close to company headquarters anyways- and transferred to NCU. I got a pretty good scholarship, plus a work-study deal to help transfer some credits, which is why I’m here. That journalist knew someone who knew someone, and got me this job. Which brings us to now.”

“I can’t believe it,” Kara said

Lena stiffened. “It’s the truth.”

“No, I know, I’m not doubting you, it just. It feels like that’s the kind of thing that doesn’t happen to real people, you know? You’re so,” she brushed a hand over Lena’s hair, smoothing the braided section. “Sweet, and smart, and normal.” 

“Kara,” Lena said. “What’s my last name?”

“Uh. K-something, right? It’s Irish. God, I’m the worst friend. Wait- Kieran! Lena Kieran.”

“That’s what’s on my papers. But don’t feel bad for not knowing. I don’t introduce myself with it, or have the kids call me Ms. Kieran, because I know I’ll slip up and not answer, or look at someone funny, and they’ll know-”

“Know what?”

“That it’s a fake name. My middle name, to be exact. Lena Kieran Luthor.”

The moon had gone behind a cloud, and when Lena closed her eyes there was no discernable difference in the blackness.

“Luthor,” Kara said, and then she said, “Jesus,” again.

“I know. And I’d understand if you think differently of me, or if you don’t, I guess, if you don’t want to be fr-”

“So that article- Cat Grant’s exposé, on your family- you were the source?”

“Yes, that’s what I- how do you know Ms. Grant’s name?”

“She’s one of my mentors, I’m a student at NCU, remember? That article helped a _ lot _of people, and you made it happen, Lena. That’s amazing. You’re amazing.”

“I suspected for years that something was wrong in the company, and didn’t do anything. I’m not amazing, I was practically complicit.”

With a flick of her wrist, Kara looped the scrunchie around the end of the plait, and turned Lena around to hold her shoulders. “You were _ brave _, Lena. You are brave. The courage it must have taken, to leave your life behind like that? That’s nothing short of heroic.”

“The, uh. The board, what was left of it after the hearings, wanted me to take over as CEO,” Lena admitted. She hadn’t told anyone this part. “Try and rebrand the company, make it better, build it back up. I turned them down.”

“You’re still in college, they can’t expect that of you! You’re only twenty years old, and even if you were older, that’s a heavy burden to bear.”

“If I had stayed, the stock might not have plummeted as far- less people might have lost their jobs. Don’t get me wrong- Sam Arias, the new CEO, has been doing a great job, but the board said… they said that if I left I was abandoning my duty.”

“Well, that’s bullshit,” Kara declared. “And you were smart enough to get away from that situation. You’re pursuing your education, making time for yourself, making new friends.” She squeezed her hand. “No sane person would blame you for that.”

Lena took a deep, shuddering breath. “I’ve never said all of that out loud before,” she admitted, voice thick, eyes burning. “Thank you.”

Kara wrapped an arm around her, rubbing her back in comforting circles. “Always,” she said.

The moon came back out from behind its cloud, and washed the bunk in silver light.

***

Things were different, after that. 

The first, internal difference was that Lena felt lighter, almost, like she had let go of a weight she didn’t know she was carrying. She found herself smiling more, and worrying less, and, most noticeably, sleeping better. Things weren’t perfect, but they were definitely improving. 

She even told an abridged version of what Winn later dubbed her ‘tragic backstory’ to the rest of her friends, figuring that they deserved to know the truth. They listened, and pulled her in for a group hug, and shared their own stories. Kara talked about the solitude she felt after her parents died, before she grew close to Alex and before Clark found her. Nia shared the bullying she had gone through as a young trans girl in a small-town public school. As it turned out, a few of them had worse family situations than Lena did- Brainy’s extended family was part of some anti-technology cult, and Mike’s parents were white supremecists. Both of them had been emancipated as teenagers, and wholeheartedly supported her changing her name. 

“Sometimes,” Mike said, looking as serious as she had ever seen him, “You need a fresh start.”

“My full name is Winslow Schott Junior,” Winn said. “Winslow Schott Senior is in prison. I almost changed my name, but I decided I wouldn’t let him take anything else away from me. It’s entirely up to you.”

“Just know that we support you,” Kara said. “All of us. Always.”

The second, more external difference was that her sense of inner relaxation was reflected on the outside. She wore her hair braided, sometimes, or in ponytails and buns, almost always done by Kara, though she was learning how to do some of it herself. 

Her fashion was more casual, too. Kara had also picked up a habit of lending her clothes after one memorable day at the lake, where Lena had been collecting samples for a lab the next day and had gotten caught in the crossfire of an epic land-sea battle between Kara’s and Mike’s kids. There had been canoe formations, and water gun infantry, and Kara had been wearing a red bikini, and Lena had fallen into the lake. Well, she had been knocked into the lake, by Kara, who dove in front of her on the dock to take a water balloon to the chest and in doing so pushed her backwards to safety except instead of safety there was a lake, and they had both gone under in a tangled, laughing mess. Mike was very sorry, and apologized profusely, and offered to let Lena shoot him in the face with any kind of water gun she wanted. Lena graciously accepted the offer and chose a tiny water pistol with which she drew a dick on his shirt. She and Kara went back to their cabin, shivering and wringing out their hair, and somehow Lena left wearing Kara’s soft grey NCU pullover.

Kara insisted she keep the sweatshirt. And the shorts she was given because _ “It’s way too hot to wear pants, even linen ones.” _ And the khakis with all the pockets, because they _ “would be perfect for holding science things.” _ And the worn Paramore t-shirt because _ “I hardly listen to them anymore.” _ And the _ “extra pair” _ of ripped jeans. And the green tank top that _ “perfectly matches your eyes.” _ And, of course, the scrunchies. 

Needless to say, her family would have a conniption if they saw how she looked nowadays, as she reflected to Winn and Brainy in the meadow one day. _ “Good,” _ Brainy replied, and that was that.

The third difference was… different. 

Kara was still awful at roasting marshmallows, but she persisted nonetheless, the result of which was that Lena accepted the burnt remains of the attempts each night, and either in preparing the stick or helping Kara extinguish the flames or in transferring the charred goop to a graham cracker their hands would touch. No big deal, just fingertips brushing, just knuckles grazing palm, just glances of touch that felt like sparks. Just eye contact that glowed molten, hanging between them for a millisecond linger each time it happened. Just the way her breath caught when Kara smiled, the way she felt dizzy when she laughed, the way she took mental notes of her day to tell Kara about later, the way Kara would lean her head on her shoulder as the fire died and the stars above them grew steadily brighter than the dim embers. 

At this point, she knew that what she felt around Kara was different than her affection for the rest of her friends. She didn’t want to think too hard about it, though, wouldn’t say the words, even to herself. This was the best thing that had ever happened to her, and there was no way in hell she would mess it up. She remembered when she had thought that her feelings for Kara might be those of Best Friend awe, and felt a pang of sorrow for herself of only a few weeks ago- of course Kara was her best friend. The fact that she had imagined that to be such a huge unattainable concept really showed how lonely she had been. These thoughts circled as she tried to sleep each night, and it was all she could do to put them out of her mind.

  
  


It had been nearly a week since the braiding/backstory conversation, and it was, to put it delicately, hot as fuck. Lena had slowly gotten accustomed to the heat as the summer progressed, and it definitely helped that she no longer regularly wore silk and velvet, but a fresh heat wave had descended upon Supercamp, sending temperatures soaring, tempers shortening, and common sense flying out the windows. She liked to think that her Science track kids were among the most reasonable and level-headed of children, but even sweet, patient Caitlyn had gotten frosty with her the other day, and she was getting irritable vibes from Cisco, who was usually a delight. Kara’s kids had ramped up the competitiveness of every game and exercise, and Clark’s kids were getting antsy with each passing day that the horses couldn’t be ridden. Today, Alex had finally caved and cancelled normal classes for the afternoon, calling for a camp-wide Beach Day at the lake instead.

Lena sat cross-legged on a rock by the shore in the minimal shade of a drooping willow tree, fanning herself with a blue and green accordion paper fan that Nia had made for her. All the counselors had gotten one, but it had her name on the side in glitter glue and she had still teared up a little upon receiving it. In the water, children shrieked and laughed, the sound blending with the waves and the birdsong into a pleasant background murmur. Kara and Mike were on lifeguard duty on the dock, so she watched the kids swim with fondness rather than fearful protectiveness. That was new, as well- every time one of her kids would beam a gap-toothed grin at her, or eagerly show her a project in class, or present her with a pebble they found, the fondness grew. 

As she watched, a figure in red shorts sprinted to the end of the dock, leaping into the air to make a cannon ball splash twice his size.

Mike tweeted his whistle. “‘C’mon, dude, we’ve been over this, no running on the docks. One more and it’s time-out.”

Barry pouted, bobbing in the water.

Climbing up the dock ladder next to him, Oliver said something mocking, his words snatched by the breeze but his meaning clear. He walked with purposeful slowness to the edge and proceeded to jump straight up and out, making a bigger splash than Barry had without any sprinting. 

The sound of their subsequent bickering drifted through the humid air over to Lena and she smiled to herself at the familiarity of it. She and Kara had been finding more and more excuses to combine Sports and Science classes, with the unintended effect of friendships forming between their groups. Oliver and Barry never stopped bickering, but she could tell they had grown close. And if sometimes she caught an expression on Barry’s young face that hit a little close to home, well, she wasn’t going to mention it. Fumbling your way through feeling your first genuine feelings for another person was hard enough without outside input.

And now she was thinking of Kara again. Unbidden, her eyes scanned the dock for blonde curls. She felt a funny little spasm in her chest when she found her, in her red bikini, lifting her hair to one side so Mike could put sunscreen on her back. She was laughing about something, keeping her eyes on the swimming kids and not looking back at him, so she was missing the look in his eyes, like she was the greatest thing in the world. Like he couldn’t believe she was even letting him touch her. 

Lena couldn’t believe she was letting him touch her. 

As soon as she thought it, she felt bad. It was probably this damnable heat, shortening her temper. She knew she was being unfair, that she liked Mike, that he was her friend too, and she had few enough of those as it was. He was sweet, and handsome enough, she supposed- she had never been good at telling if men were attractive or not. Kara deserved good things. It didn’t stop the ache. 

She was so consumed by whatever this emotion was that at first she didn’t notice someone settling down on the rock beside her. 

“Breaks your heart, doesn’t it?”

“What.”

“I mean, just look,” Alex said, pointing, not at the dock but back on the beach.

Following her gesture, Lena saw Winn, struggling under the weight of several large tubs towards Brainy, who was setting up what looked like a cartoon ice cream stand. Brainy didn’t notice his approach, caught up in conversation with Nia, who was leaning on the stand, smiling at him. Winn staggered, the tubs thudding down, and tripped into the sand.

“Are you alright?” She heard Brainy ask sympathetically, offering a hand to help him up.

“Those look heavy, you sure you aren’t dying out here?” Nia asked.

Winn let go of Brainy’s hand. “Every day,” he said quietly, but at that point the other two were focused on each other again.

“Huh,” Lena said.

Alex tilted her head, conspiratorial. “Want to know a secret, Lena?”

“Sure.”

“I know that I keep myself aloof, that I don’t really gossip with you guys.”

“Because you’re in charge, I know,” Lena said. She had hardly talked to Alex since her first day, though the Director often sought Kara out. The clear strength of the bond between the siblings made a part of her, locked tight in a box in the back of her mind, ache.

“Yeah, I can’t play favorites. Plus, I have, like, a shit ton of work to do all the time. But just because I don’t actively meddle doesn’t mean I don’t care.”

“Care about what?” Lena asked. 

“You guys! All my little subordinates,” Alex smiled, bumping Lena’s shoulder with her own. “The secret is, I’m way too invested in your love lives. My girlfriend would say it’s unprofessional, but I can’t help that I’m so observant, you know.”

“Your,” Lena said. “Girl- you have a girlfr-”

“Yeah, we’ve been together for a few years now,” Alex said fondly. Her face was entirely too patient, too understanding.

Lena looked away- she couldn’t deal with that right now. The muggy air was somehow thicker than it was a second ago, pressing at her nose and mouth. Her gaze landed on Winn, who was now sitting by himself on the beach, watching the kids swim with a glazed expression, mindlessly scooping up sand in a blue plastic shovel and pouring it out again. 

“So, Brainy and Nia…” she said.

“Oh, yeah,” Alex confirmed, gracefully accepting the subject change. “That’s been brewing all summer, believe me.”

“I believe you,” Lena laughed, watching the pair in question share a dish of mint chocolate chip. “They’re certainly cute together, I just-” 

Over on the beach, Winn appeared to be digging a small hole and dropping pebbles into it, one by one.

“They’re my friends, both of them,” she continued. “I guess I should have seen the Brainy and Nia thing coming, but- I thought Winn liked Clark, or something?” She was proud of herself for remembering that much, but Alex just laughed.

“Winn has had a hero-worship type thing for Clark for years, it’s true, but I wouldn’t call it a crush- not anymore, anyway. Clark and Lois are, like, the definition of soulmates. No, he’s had a thing for Brainy since the end of camp last year when Winn went for a goodbye hug and Brainy went for a goodbye kiss.”

“What? But, what changed?”

“I don’t know. I guess Brainy thought last summer was a rejection, and moved on.”

“Poor Winn,” Lena said, almost to herself.

The man in question had ceased the melancholic shoveling and was now staring out at the lake. No, not the lake- when Lena followed his gaze, it led to the dock, where Kara and Mike were seated.

“Wait, what?” 

“Excellent observational skills,” Alex grinned. “Winn may have convinced himself that he likes Brainy, but you can’t deny his connection with a certain someone, can you? The level of banter those two have is insufferable.”

Winn liked Kara too? “But,” Lena sputtered, trying to think of a way to protest without letting on that- “But, uh, Kara and Mike seemed pretty close, a minute ago!” 

Nailed it.

“Kara? Sure, she and Mike dated years ago, but that was pretty short-lived, and, in my honest opinion, not the healthiest relationship ever. He’s grown a lot since then, so I forgive him, and they’re still friendly, but… no. Sure, he may still carry a torch for her, and that may or may not have caused some tension when he dated Imra, but let’s just say he is no longer Kara’s type.”

Lena blinked wordlessly, attempting to process the information Alex had just dumped on her, idly wondering if the heat had cooked her brain. “You weren’t lying,” she managed. “You definitely seem very invested.”

Alex shrugged with a mischievous smile.

“Wait, hang on- so a minute ago, you weren’t suggesting that Winn should get with Kara, you meant that he should get with-”

“Mike, yeah! Wait, you thought I meant Kara?”

“Well, they certainly have a certain banter, or whatever you said, I guess it could be flirting?”

Alex burst out laughing, a hand flying up to cover her mouth. “Trust me, Kara is not one to flirt by using smooth banter,” she wheezed. “Flirting is, like, her one weakness. I swear she’s amazing at everything else.”

“Well, not everything, surely,” Lena grinned, thinking of the poor marshmallows. 

“No, really!” Alex chuckled. “I was so jealous when we were growing up. She’s always had straight A’s and been awesome at sports and everything, and even here at camp she hardly notices the heat, she can make a perfect s’more, the kids adore her- _ but _ she is the absolute _ worst _at flirting. You should hear some of the advice she gave me when I started dating- Lena, what’s wrong?”

It was so, _ so _hot. Hot to the point of nausea, the kind that filled the whole body, not just the stomach. “What did you say about s’mores?”

“What?”

“You said that Kara-”

“Well, yeah, she’s like a marshmallow superstar! I always chicken out and under-roast mine, but she can get them golden every time. It’s kind of infuriating, but, you know. I’ve definitely missed the campfires this year, next year I’ll have to shift my schedule around so I can come and-”

“Excuse me,” Lena said distantly. Pieces were flying together, all the times she had lightly asked when Kara would learn, or how this kept happening, but never looking further because every night was a chance to smile sympathetically, to brush hands again. All the clues she should have seen.

Her head swam as she stood up, but her feet carried her without her permission, and through her flickering vision she could see Alex’s concerned face blur into the sandy shore of the beach. God, it was _ hot _, and humid, and as she swept a hand over her sticky forehead to push back a few escaped tendrils she felt the heat of her dark hair burning her palm. Kara. She had to find Kara, had to ask- no, confront- no, demand- no, confess- 

She was standing on the dock, and the world was spinning, and instead of Kara’s face there was Winn’s, and Mike’s, bearing identical expressions of worry.

Lena laughed to herself, and reached out both hands to pat them on the cheeks. “You boys are blurry,” she said. “Blurry banter boys. You should fall in love,” and then the boards of the dock were rushing up at her and everything went black.

***

_ “You’re not seriously considering going.” _

_ “I don’t know,” Lena said quietly. They were sitting in the high-ceilinged parlor of the Luthor mansion, and she was perched at the end of a gleaming leather sofa, sorting the mail that the butler had set aside for her. _

_ “You know it’s not going to last,” Lex sneered, lounging on a matching armchair. “This is the same couple you complained about nonstop a year ago, or have you forgotten?” _

_ Lena traced the rose-gold foil letters on the wedding invitation. It was true- she and the groom-to-be, Jack Spheer, had been partners for a huge research project last year when they were both seniors at boarding school in Ireland. His girlfriend at the time, Beth Breen, had been clingy to the point of obsession, constantly insisting on being there while they worked as if afraid Lena was going to move on her man. Somehow, the project had been finished, but not without severe temptation to strangle the both of them- Beth for preventing any work from getting done and Jack for not standing up to her. Lena knew that Lex was probably right, that they wouldn’t last in the long run, but… _

_ “They’re getting married, though,” she found herself saying despite her better judgement. She knew the look that would appear on Lex’s face even as she spoke, but couldn’t help herself. “It’s been a year. Maybe they worked through their issues, figured it all out, realized that love-” _

_ Sure enough, Lex’s mouth twisted with distaste. The golden light of the chandeliers created dramatic shadows on his face, exaggerating the expression. “Love? Are you kidding me? Even you should know better. I mean, I know you’re a romantic at heart,” and she could hear the disdainful air quotes, “but come on. She’s probably forcing him to commit for life because he accidentally brushed hands with some chick. God, that ceremony will be pathetic. You’re not going.” _

_ The last sentence was said with an eye roll, but Lena recognized it for the order it was. “Of course not. I barely knew him anyway.” _

_ That wasn’t quite true. In snatched conversations she and Jack had gotten along well, had shared scientific visions and senses of humor, but any rapport was quickly squashed by Beth before a friendship could form. It didn’t matter. She stood to leave. _

_ “Lena,” he said. “Make sure you throw that in the recycling.” _

_ She could almost believe he cared about the planet. “Right.” _

_ “Weddings, love, all that sentimental drivel,” he said, staring into her eyes. “Crushes. Flirting. Just distractions. Stupid, petty distractions for stupid, petty people. You and I are beyond such things.” _

_ She smiled, thightly. “Of course.” _

_ As she strode away she remembered a time, not long ago at all, when the mere phrasing of ‘you and I’- together, set apart from others, better than others- would have made her giddy with pride, with validation. She didn’t feel that way now. She felt the phone number of that reporter from last week burning a hole in her wallet. She knew that Lex was controlling, manipulative, and, if the reporter was to be believed, downright sociopathic. She knew that she was in for a lifetime of unlearning what he had taught her, even if she never called Ms. Grant back. _

_ Yet, without thinking, her hand crumpled the invitation at her side. _

***

As Lena came to, she registered three pressing needs: to down whatever headache meds she could get her hands on, to chase them with a full bottle of cold water, and to get to Kara as fast as was humanly possible.

Blinking to clear her vision, she took in her surroundings, taking in high wooden ceilings dotted with webs and peeling blue paint. She was laying on top of the blankets on a cot, still in her (Kara’s) shorts and tank top, with a damp rag on her forehead, and it was fucking freezing- probably due to the plethora of fans scattered throughout the room. On a small cart to the side of the cot was a bottle of off-brand ibuprofen and a light blue gatorade, as well as a dusty little digital clock declaring- _ shit _.

Lena swung her legs over the side of the cot as she stood up, bracing one hand against the wall as a kaleidoscope bloomed behind her eyes. _ Double shit _.

Leg bouncing with impatience, she sat back down and attempted to school her breathing as she opened the pill bottle and tapped two into her palm, as she twisted the drink open. She took a small sip to swallow the pills, then tipped her head back and chugged the rest of the sickly sweet concoction. Jesus, her throat was dry.

She breathed deeply until she could stand without the room spinning. There was no sign of anyone else, and she felt fine, and, besides- she looked at the clock again- she had somewhere to be.

Lena slipped out the heavy, creaking door and down a narrow hallway. She passed a room on the left with the door ajar, allowing her to see Alex, facing away and clearly on the phone, dressed in a white lab coat over her usual camp polo. She felt a pang of guilt as she kept going, but it wasn’t as if she had been in a hospital gown, or hooked up to an IV. She would come back, and thank Alex, and figure out what had happened, later. Right now, there was only one thing that mattered. 

She exited the building and found herself in the main lawn between the central camp buildings- the same place she had run into Alex on her first day. God, that felt like a million years ago. Her feet remembered the path they had walked that day, and it felt like a blink between striding down the porch stairs and stepping down the last “stair” that led to the Pavilion. 

The heat had broken, and a light breeze trailed through the still-muggy air. Over the lake, the sun was beginning to set. The sky was a delicate blend of blue and gold with wispy pink clouds streaked along the horizon. The valley felt full of something tangible, something in the feel of the air and the colors of the clouds like a promise held carefully in cupped hands. Lena couldn’t, in that moment, put a name to what she felt, but she was feeling so much of it that she felt as if she might burst. 

She touched one of the wooden pillars, scanning the pavilion. The kids were eating at their benches, and Brainy and his hairnet were serving food behind the long table, and some of the counselors were laughing at their bench, but where was-

Kara, lit peach and gold by the sky, looked up right as Lena met her eyes, and smiled brighter than the sun. The jolt that the look sent through her was every bit as strong as it had been the day they’d met, and, jesus, how had she not known? How could she have doubted? 

In the space of a heartbeat, Kara was in front of her, pulling her into a hug and laughing into her neck. “Lena! You’re okay, thank goodness.”

“I’m okay,” Lena echoed, hugging her back. “I’m okay.” When had she learned to do that, to lift her arms and squeeze instead of freezing at any contact?

“I knew you would be, Alex said it was just the heat and that you were dehydrated and,” Kara pulled back but kept a hold on Lena’s arms, as if to reassure herself that Lena wasn’t going to faint again. “And I worried anyway. I should have helped you remember to drink water, or I should have been paying more attention-”

“Hey, it’s not your fault,” Lena said, reaching to cover Kara’s hand with her own. “I knew it was hot enough to make me feel dizzy, I should have brought a water bottle and I shouldn’t have stood up so fast-”

“Why were you on the dock anyway, silly? I don’t think I’ve ever run as fast as when I saw you collapse. You almost fell in, I had to carry you to the DEO, and-”

“You carried me?”

“Yeah.”

They had stepped down from the pavilion somewhere during the hug, and were hidden from view by a few trees- as if it was just the two of them on the shore, just the two of them in the whole world. Lena took Kara’s other hand, then lowered all their joined hands between the two of them, studied the tangled pattern of their interlaced fingers, and steeled herself. She looked up. Kara’s eyes never left hers.

“Can I ask you something.”

“Always. Anything.”

“On a scale of one to ten,” Lena said, “How would you describe your marshmallow-roasting skills?”

Kara looked like she was about to laugh, then her eyes widened, then she looked like she was about to cry. “Lena. I can explain-”

“Scale of one to ten.”

Kara looked down, then, squeezing Lena’s hands- unable to face her yet grounded by her touch. “Ten.”

Lena squeezed back, if only to banish the horrible wrecked look that had stricken Kara’s features.

Kara looked up, hope shimmering in her blue eyes.

“Okay, so. A long time ago, my family told me things, and I accepted them as true. Then years passed, and I found out that they were very bad people. But I still accepted some of the things they told me, because it’s hard to separate what you learned from your family and what you figured out for yourself.”

“Lena-”

“Let me talk, just for a minute. I’m trying to say- you’ve helped me more than you can know, just by helping me learn that about myself- that I _ had _ things to unlearn- _ and _ by actively making me unlearn them. At the beginning of this summer, I was- I don’t even know how to-” To her horror, Lena realized she was tearing up.

Kara wordlessly pulled a tissue from the pack on her belt and pressed it to Lena’s face. 

Lena leaned into the touch and closed her eyes. She kept them closed as she said, “If you had, that first night, offered me that s’more and told me that you burnt the marshmallow just for me because you liked me, I wouldn’t have taken it. I would have felt pandered to, pited, even. At first, when I realized, I was angry- no, I was hurt, hurt and angry and betrayed, like you had been laughing at me the whole time, keeping this secret even though everybody else knew-” 

She paused, breathed, forced herself to meet Kara’s gaze. “And then I realized, that’s the reaction that my brother conditioned me to have. It’s what he would have wanted, for me to be so isolated that I don’t trust the love of those around me. But I am _ not _ the person he made me. And I know you wouldn’t do that. I trust what we have, these feelings that I _ know _ mean something real.”

Kara was crying too, and smiling, and the pretense of the tissue was abandoned as she brought her other hand up to cradle Lena’s face. “I’m sorry for lying-”

“You weren’t really lying,” Lena said. “Honestly, now that I’ve had a minute to think about it, I think it’s adorable that you kept burning marshmallows all summer because you thought I like them that way, that you knew I wouldn’t accept them as an intentional gift, at least, not at first-”

“Wait, _ thought _ you liked them? Do you not like burnt marshmallows?” Kara looked so indignant that Lena couldn’t help but giggle.

“They’ve grown on me,” she admitted. “But I do prefer them… not charred.”

“But that first night, you said-”

“You looked so dejected when it caught fire, I couldn’t just say nothing, although, now I know that was all a ploy…” Lena teased.

“Actually,” Kara coughed. “That first night was unintentional. I just looked up across the fire and saw you for the first time, and you were smiling to yourself, and the next thing I know my marshmallow was, well, you know. I didn’t start doing it on purpose until the second night, and it was less of a decision to lie so much as it was a realization that I wanted to make you happy.”

“I was _ happy _ because I was meeting you,” Lena said with a small smile. “And I have a confession, too, while we’re at it.”

“You do?”

“I’m actually really, really good at archery.”

Kara’s eyes widened, and she let go of Lena’s face to poke her in the arm, other hand resting where her shoulder curved into her neck. “That was on purpose? That day in the woods, with our classes and the, the posture adjusting?”

“Hey, what about you, Miss Climb-Into-My-Bed-And-Let-Me-Braid-Your-Hair?”

“That was actually just,” Kara glanced down at the ground. “Uh. That was genuinely about talking with you. I mean, I like-like you, but. I also love you.”

The sky was brilliantly, impossibly pink.

Lena was smiling so wide her face hurt. “You like-like me, huh?”

“I know, it’s dumb-”

Lena took Kara’s face in her hands and kissed her. For the first time in as long as she could remember, the voice in the back of her head was silent, drowned out by the overwhelming feeling of _ rightness _ , and _ yes _ , and most of all, as Kara slid her hands around Lena’s waist and kissed her back, _ finally _.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Short epilogue coming soon!


	2. Chapter 2

“You’re telling me, honest-to-god, zero bullshit- you’re telling me not  _ one _ of you noticed?”

“To be fair,” Alex said, delicately sipping from an off-brand juice pouch, “They’ve all had a tumultuous summer as well, romantically speaking.”

“Still,” Kara scoffed. “You guys have known me for years. How could you fail to notice that my marshmallow roasting had gone from flawless to flambé? I was waiting all summer for one of you to say something.”

It was the last night of camp, and they were all at the counselor’s bench as the Farewell Dinner drew to a close. The table was scattered with empty plates, and night had fallen over the valley, leaving the flickering campfire as the only source of light.

“Alex has a point,” Winn said. “It’s been a transitory couple’a months. Figuring stuff out, you know.”

“It looks to me like you’ve figured things out,” Lena said drily.

“Just what do you mean by that?”

“Winn, you’re literally sitting on Mike’s lap right now,” Kara sighed.

“That doesn’t mean anything,” Mike protested. “It’s a crowded bench.”

“It would be a crowded bench,” Alex said. “Except that J’onn is at the DEO doing paperwork, and Clark and Lois are off on a walk along the lake, and Brainy is currently on Nia’s lap as well. Guys, no lap-sitting is necessary. Follow Kara and Lena’s example.”

“I didn’t realize it was an option,” Kara said. She patted her thighs and raised an eyebrow in Lena’s direction. “Hop on, babe.”

Lena rolled her eyes. She still wasn’t really about the PDA- holding hands, hugs, and quick kisses were fine, but she did have to draw the line somewhere, and Kara knew that. “What Kara was trying to say,” she said fondly, “Is that she expected more surprise from you all, especially given that apparently none of you noticed anything strange about the Marshmallow Massacre.”

“Well, we knew you two were into each other,” Nia said. “That much was obvious to anyone in the same room as you, no offense.”

Lena almost protested, then reconsidered. “That’s fair.”

“As for the marshmallow thing, well,” Winn shrugged. “I guess Alex has a point. I may have been a bit distracted.”

“I think it is safe to say that this summer has been a time of significance for all of us,” Brainy said diplomatically. He raised his juice pouch. “If I may propose a toast?”

Everyone mirrored his action.

“Here’s to new connections,” he declared. “In whatever form they may take.” They all cheered, attempted to clink the pouches, and drank.

Looking around, Lena gave a sad smile to the kids exchanging numbers and social media accounts, giving tearful hugs and awkward speeches. Kara nudged her to look towards a table on the left, where Oliver was scanning Barry’s snapcode while both boys deliberately avoided each other’s eyes. She hid her giggles in Kara’s shoulder, and her girlfriend-  _ girlfriend!!! _ \- wrapped an arm around her shoulders. 

She was sad to be leaving, for sure- the past few months had been, without a doubt, the best of her life, and that was due in large part to the magical nature of Supercamp itself. But it was also due to the  _ people _ \- what had Brainy said, the new connections- and she wasn’t leaving them at all. Alex worked in National City during the year, though she wouldn’t give any details about her job and the others were convinced she worked for some secret government organization. Winn and Brainy both attended NCU, Nia went to a local prestigious art school, and Mike was heading into his last year at a nearby private university. Even Clark and Lois had a farm in one of National City’s suburbs. Of course, Lena was most looking forward to seeing Kara every day, as they had realized they would both be renting apartments in the same building. 

The summer was ending, and that couldn’t be avoided. But, as Lena curled into Kara’s embrace, grinning as a fresh wave of bickering broke out across the table, she realized that, though she mourned its passing, her excitement for the fall drowned out the sadness. Here, in this moment, the campfire was bright. But, at last, she truly believed that the future would be brighter.

Fin

  
  
  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A few notes:
> 
> -technically Lena had heat syncope (a mild case of heat-related fainting), not heat stroke, so she’s totally fine lol  
-Lena not knowing how to wear her hair up is a direct reference to Tahani al-Jamil and Gina Linetti   
-Lena absolutely goes a few more years struggling to adjust to her new name until after she and Kara graduate and are living together when Kara proposes by offering hers instead  
-uhhhh idk feel free to ask me for any more details
> 
> Hope you enjoyed!


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